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On Fins and Needles
Synopsis 16-year-old Nicole and 14-year-old Susie are teaching yet another martial arts class together. Vita Repulsa sends the Slippery Shark to put a spell on the two. The spell turns them into enemies. The Rangers have to find a way to stop the two from fighting. Plot Nicole and Susie are again shown teaching a martial arts class, while Max and Drew watch from the side. The students do well, and Max positively comments that the classes are a great way to prevent the kids from getting into outside trouble. Both Nicole and Susie remind their students before dismissing the class that any martial arts is to be used for self-defense only, and only as a last resort, as in if every other way besides fighting does not work. Vita watches them from the moon and is annoyed by their teamwork. Wanting to split them up and make them enemies, Rita takes Goldonna's suggestion of using the Slippery Shark monster's rivalry spell to help put her plan into action. The Putties are sent down to attack Nicole and Susie as they walk through the park discussing their classes. During the battle, Slippery Shark's boomerang is thrown at each of them by the Putties, and once they each catch it, they are shocked and put under the spell, and it immediately kicks in once the Putties are defeated. The spell works its magic on both Nicole and Susie with ugly results, with them being openly hostile to one and other and soon insulting each other. After fighting over their performances during the battle, Susie accuses Nicole of being an arrogant know-it-all and thinking she's better than everyone else and says that she is sick of taking orders from her just because she is older than her. Nicole harshly tells her that if she doesn't like it, she can get lost, and further remarks that the Power Rangers were doing just fine before she showed up, leaving Susie angered and presumably hurt and storms off. Vita watches the arguing from her Moon Palace and is pleased with the spell's results. The next day while walking to school, Rico and Carmen notice Nicole and Susie's hostility toward each other as the spell's effects on them continue to take effect. When asked about the karate classes by the their friends, Susie says the she had quit them and accuses Nicole of always showing off, and the two combat each other verbally once again. Rico and Carmen are confused by this as Nicole was like a big sister to Susie and wondered what was going on with the two. Susie's snobbish twin classmates, Brittany and Brianna Chandler notice their arguing and find it amusing. Rico encourages Nicole and Susie to sit down and talk things over, but the twins encourage them to 'settle it like men,' and because of the spell's effects, the girls agree and the situation becomes so hostile that a fight almost breaks out right then and there in the neighborhood. Thankfully Carmen's mother steps into the scene and Carmen and Rico are thankfully able to get them out of trouble by saying that the two were just practicing moves. But the issue is far from over and as the crowd in the hall disperses, Carmen and Rico continue to wonder what happened with the the girls. Vita continues to be pleased with the spell's progress and the evil team figures that the time is right to send down the Slippery Shark to wreak havoc in Riverside. At the Command Center, Gamma 5 tries to pinpoint the Shark's location but because of the monster's speed and elusive skill, she is unable to do so. Later on at the Youth Center, the Chandler twins have turned Susie and Nicole's dilemma into a money-making opportunity by selling tickets for a fight between the two to anyone who is interested. Susie and Nicole have each accepted the challenge and are more than willing to fight each other to the finish. The twins soon begin the match and the two friends-turned-enemies begin circling each other angrily. Drew, Rico, and Carmen step in and Max tries to get the girls to just shake hands and forget about the whole thing, reminding them of what they teach their students, but Nicole and Susie both refuse and the hostility between them in the air continues to grow and surely enough, the anticipated fight almost breaks out when, thankfully, Max's communicator goes off and he is able to stop the two just in time as they charge at each other. Max tells the two that it's time to go, and thankfully the two cease the fight, but agree to do so later. The abrupt departure of the two contestants cause the crowd to turn on the Chandler twins, who are chased out of the place by the upset crowd after saying that the fight has been delayed. The Rangers teleport to the Command Center and the two Rangers are still as hostile as ever, with Susie even pushing Gammaa out of his way at one point. Telexa explains the situation with the Shark and notes both his speed and power. Susie and Nicole continue to press each other's buttons and Telexa tries to tell them the truth, that they are under the Shark's spell and have been pinned against each other and Drew realizes that this must be Vita's ultimate goal - to use the two's rivalry to split up not only them, but the team as well. Telexa says that there is nothing the rest of them can do to break the Shark's hold on them, and that the only way to free them is for them to put aside the rivalry and work together, and the best way to do that is to send them into the battlefield alone against the Shark. After trying to beat each other to saying "Time to go Thunderstorm," Nicole and Susie morph, teleport to Riverside and decide to make things interesting between them - if Susie destroys the Slippery Shark, she gets to take over as the team leader. If Nicole destroys him, Susie turns in her Thunder Coin. The two agree to the terms and go their separate ways. Nicole is the first to find him, and because of the monster's speed and underground maneuvering she is knocked off her feet while dodging his fin, and is not even able to stop him with her Blade Blaster. The Shark taunts her and is soon out of her sight. It soon finds Susie and gives her trouble as well, at one point even surfacing from under the ground and striking her. When the Slippery Shark proves elusive once again, Nicole and Susie then run into each other again and, after more heated arguing, each say that their respictive plan would bring down the shark and agree to see which plan works. The Shark soon strikes again, and the two Rangers finally realize that they will not stand a chance against him if they don't start to work together and because they decide to do so, the spell on them is finally broken. Nicole and Susie decide to combine their respective ideas on how to weed the Shark out of the ground and trap him and are successful in doing so together. The other Rangers are happy to see the two working together again as they watch from the Viewing Globe, and when the Shark begins to overpower them, Max leads the remaining Rangers into morphing and joining the fight. The Shark proves tough, but Nicole and Susie blows on him. When the monster pulls his underground tricks on the Rangers again, Max is able to flush him back up to the surface with his Thunder Axe's Cannon Mode and the Rangers form the Thunder Blaster. But Vita, seeing her monster in trouble, makes him grow immediately and the Power Blaster just misses him. The Rangers call for both the Megazord and Dragonzord, but once again, the Slippery Shark proves too fast and they are initially unable to keep up with him. But with teamwork, they are able to set him back and break his fin weapon with the Power Sword. The Rangers then proceed to finish the monster with one final slash from the Power Sword and Riverside is safe once again. While, Vita screams in anger and frusteration, as usual. Later at the Youth Center, Nicole and Susie resume teaching their class, and are soon interrupted by the Chandler twins, who have been mobbed by the earlier crowd and because of it they each look like a tornado blew past them. The two demand that Nicole and Susie start fighting, saying that they owe them a fight from earlier, but the girls turn them down and the twins efforts to force them comedically and ultimately fail. The two friends then tell their class that there is always a better way than fighting and Nicole and Susie happily shake hands in front of their students. Trivia *This is similar to the episode in Power Rangers Megaforce, United We Stand, where rangers and best friends Kelly Hale and Samantha Morgan are placed under a spell that turned them into enemies. **Drew Hale was in both On Fins and Needles as a ranger and United We Stand as a mentor. *Drew's fear of fish from "Something Fishy" is mentioned. *The Slippery Shark will appear again in "A Reel Fish Story", but is referred to as Shark Monster. *For the second episode in a row, during the "log on" sequence, it is Rico and Carmen who logs on with a phrase related to the enemy of the day ("Let's fry this fish!"). *One of the students who Susie and Nicole are training at the start of this episode is named Melissa, sharing the same name as Carmen's deaf friend back in "Different Drum". *This was the first time a monster places a spell on two rangers to ruin their friendship, something that would be repeated in United We Stand. *Susie threatening that if she defeated the monster she would become leader of the Power Rangers would ironically come true when she assumed the White Ranger powers in White Light the following season (and because of Mercedes McNab's departure.) Category:Power Rangers: Ninja Thunder Category:Episode Category:Power Rangers Thunderstorm Category:Episodes Focusing on Pink Ranger Category:Episodes Focusing on Blue Ranger